Word: teamsters
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Before Hoffa would accept the crown, he insisted that the Teamsters run through a charade designed to show that the Teamsters believe in fair play. Even the burliest of the delegates knew that the convention stood in the grim glare of public opinion, thanks to disclosures of Teamster corruption by John McClellan's Senate labor-rackets committee. With supreme cynicism, Jimmy and his boys pretended to clean their fingernails...
Beck v. Beck. First was a gentle coup de grâce to be administered to outgoing President Dave Beck. Fat Dave, once the unchallenged Teamster baron who patted little Jimmy Hoffa on the head, was to be booted into retirement (with an annual $50,000 pension) because of his outsize financial shenanigans, because he had been accused of fleecing a Teamster's widow, and because he had stood in the way of ambitious Jimmy. Bellowed Beck, in an hour-long swan song: "To thine own self be true! I would like to see the man who can stand...
With Beck out of the way, Hoffa coped with credentials troubles. One group of insurgents had claimed in court that more than half the delegates had been illegally chosen. Hoffa saw to it that the credentials committee, headed by Kansas City Teamster Roy Williams, scratched 139 of the more doubtful delegates, and stamped the rest approved. (Williams' reward for loyal service: promise of chairmanship of the Central States Conference.) This thumping pretense served only to prove Hoffa's confidence of victory. "Are you running scared?" asked a newsman. Snapped Jimmy in a steely voice: "I never run scared...
Integrity v. Thirst. Jimmy had some actual opponents for the job, but they were feeble and halfhearted. Chief among them: Chicago Teamsters Tom Haggerty and Bill Lee. Trying at first to campaign on moral grounds, Haggerty opened campaign headquarters in the gargantuan Fontainebleau Hotel, dispensed several cases of liquor before he discovered that the Teamster delegates were less morally indignant over Hoffa's actions than they were thirsty. "We got a new slogan," rasped one Hoffaman: " 'Haggerty for integrity. Hoffa for president.' " Bill Lee, too, ran a losing battle, for among other things, he boasted the doubtful...
...this group has had little success in halting Hoffa's steamroller. What they must do then is to convince the rank and file teamster that Hoffa is bad for him and for organized labor. This will not be easy, for many teamsters believe that while Hoffa may be corrupt, he has had to be to gain labor benefits for them. The question will then be whether the anti-Hoffa forces can convince this group that Hoffa is not out for the good of the Teamsters, but for the good of James R. Hoffa...